Mercury Two point Zero
by Tirsis
Summary: Ami finds out that there is more going on in her world then she ever knew before while visiting the ENCOM booth at a Tokyo trade show. Cross with TRON 2.0 Killer App.
1. UPLOAD

A field trip is generally a time where teachers try and get students to learn, and students try to do anything but. As Mr. Icharo looked over his students as they walked along the halls of the Tokyo Consumer Electronics Show he could readily pick out the troublemakers. One such was Usagi Tsukino, who had been on the school's unofficial watch list since first year. The girl was the epitome of a blond, dozing off in class, barely passing important exams, and generally being clueless about subject matter being discussed.

The young girl next to her, however, was the pride of the school, Ami Mizuno. The young, blue haired girl was every teacher's dream come true. She was polite to a fault, knowledgeable, and always eager to learn more. How the two had wound up as friends, none of the teachers ever guessed.

In fact, it was Ami's suggestion that the class visit the CES to see the newest developments from companies around the world. She said that not only would it be good for Mr. Icharo's science class, but also a chance to learn more about foreign culture as many companies represented would be from overseas.

Too bad Mizuno's friends, Tsukino and the tall brunet Makoto Kino, seemed not to be drawn by the amazing technology that was around them like Ami was.

"All right everyone," Mr. Icharo called to his class, "Our next stop is an American company that is displaying their latest medical technology involving…" He studied the small guide in his hands and continued, "Medical lasers and A.I. controlled surgery. Keep up everyone."

Ami's smile seemed to increase as the class entered a large area with the company logo hanging above the entrance.

ENCOM International.

Mercury 2.0

A TRON/Sailor Moon story

By Seth

Part 1: UPLOAD

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. Brought to you by the letter Delta, and the number Pi.

Jethro Bradley, or Jet to his friends, looked out at the audience for the latest demo and couldn't help a smile as he saw the school girls file in and take seats. Normally he wouldn't be doing anything with ENCOM's medical research branch, but they wanted to use Ma3a to run the small scale display. Since the A.I. was his father's baby, and Dr. Alan Bradley couldn't leave the U.S. because of the ongoing legal battle with fCON Industries, Jet had been asked to tag along as support for the Mathematical Assistant version 3a.

Jet certainly didn't mind as the girls over here were very cute, even if they were three years younger then him. Throw in the fact that this was the home of anime and Jet was on the plane before the rest of the team.

Plus he needed something, anything, to get his mind off all the weird things that had happened to him and his father over the last year.

As he leaned back in the desk chair next to Ma3a's terminal, he noticed one of the schoolgirls had a palmtop computer out and was rapidly typing as her eyes danced across the equipment in the demo bay. He watched her for a moment and figured her to be at about 90 words per minute, one handed at that. He chuckled as he thought about what this girl's reflexes would be like in Space Paranoids 3D, then realized that he didn't want to know because it would only hurt his ego.

"Jet?"

He turned back to the terminal when the digital voice of Ma3a buzzed in his headset, "What is it?"

Ma3a's readout scrolled a massive amount of code down the screen and the synthesized female voice answered, "I'm picking up some anomalous signals in the system. I think we have two hackers attempting to look into our files."

Jet pushed up his glasses and leaned over the keyboard, "Can you back trace the intrusion while I dump them?"

"One is from a wireless modem, I'd guess nearby our physical location. But the other is the one that bothers me. It feels like a search worm of some sort, but there is something about it."

Quickly, Jet's hands danced across the keyboard as he set up a partition to contain the intruders. Launching a dozen security programs against them seemed to help, and Jet took a moment to examine the code of their new friends. The one from the local wi-fi connection was very complex, but seemed to be a simple snoop and scoot program, someone just looking for a peek at ENCOM's tech without any hostile action. The other program was not so benign and without the barrier that Ma3a and Jet were building around it could do major damage to the structure of the system.

Jet quickly waved the project leader, Dr. Wilson over, "I think we have a problem, Doc."

The older man looked down at the tech and grunted, "What is it now, Mr. Bradley?"

"I think we better call off the demo for now. I have a lot of problems cropping up in the server at the moment and I don't want to risk running the program until it's fully debugged."

The doctor looked at the monitor with a note of disgust and asked, "Is there a problem with the system itself? We have reps here from a dozen Far East concerns; I do not want to lose face with this crowd."

Jet rubbed the bridge of his nose and answered, "The system is fine right now. Ma3a and I have the problem contained, but if it gets loose…"

"Firstly, Mr. Bradley, you need to stop talking as if that ghastly program of your father's is alive," Wilson chided the young man, "Secondly, as long as the system is ready, and your problem is contained, then I have no problem with going forward. We have tested this in the lab hundreds of times, and if we want to keep money coming in after the fiasco with fCON we need these investors. Get ready to run the program."

With that the doctor left Jet and began to make his presentation.

Jet lowered his head and muttered to the terminal, "Keep a tight lock on the bug, Ma3a. We are on our own here."

"I wish I could, Jet," Ma3a's voice said, "but the seeker is working around my partition to attack my subroutines directly. I think it's looking for something, possibly laser algorithms."

That instantly drew Jet's attention and he began to type furiously at the keyboard.

In the audience, Ami sat with her very special palmtop computer open. She was truly impressed with the high level of technology the American company was showing today, and had decided to use the almost magical nature of her Mercury computer to scan the equipment. As a superhero in disguise, she found that any information could be turned into a weapon, and had developed the habit of scanning every new bit of information that passed her way to catalog in the almost limitless crystal storage drives of her alter ego's tool. And since she herself was interested in the medical application of the ENCOM system, a company that was famous for its use of lasers and computer design, she found herself deeply enthralled by the demonstration that was starting.

Too bad her fearless leader Sailor Moon, known as Usagi in her human form, was fast asleep on her shoulder.

Ami watched as the new surgical laser began a simple procedure on a human mock up, impressed with it's precession in a very delicate situation. As the demonstration proceeded, she glanced down at the Mercury computer and saw that the laser was controlled by an A.I. level program, and she found herself enthralled by the complex code that her computer could detect in the fast running server staffed by a young American only a few years older then her.

She looked over to the, by her standards, handsome young man and saw that he was typing furiously with sweat beginning to show on his brow.

Back at the terminal, Jet found himself with his hands full. Not only was the demo running now, but his intruder had broken loose and was diving into Ma3a's core memory.

"Pull the plug, Ma3a," he urged into his headset, "We can't risk it getting too deep."

The A.I. responded, "I can't, the demo script is locked up and the worm is going after my restricted memory partition."

Jet felt a cold hand run down his spine and he whispered, "The correction algorithms for digitization."

"I think so."

Jet stood, and as calmly as he could walked over to Dr. Wilson and whispered into the older man's ear, "Doctor, we are about to have a fatal error in the server. You need to pull the plug on the demo right now so I can shut down the works until we can get Ma3a back to my father."

"Go sit down and mind your video games, Mr. Bradley," Wilson sneered, "I am conducting the business of the company here." He was about to say more when Ma3a's synthesized voice crackled over the demonstration area's speakers.

"Security failure. Laser activity in the Medical Bay. Overrides failed, please evacuate the bay."

Jet brought his hand up to his headset and called, "Ma3a, what's happening?"

"It found what it's looking for, but it triggered the program. The medical laser is being tuned for digital scanning now, and I can't stop the procedure. Alpha level protocol active."

Jet grabbed the doctor's arm and said, "Now you have to pay attention. Alpha gives me the right to order you to evacuate right now. What's happening is top secret, and if you don't want your ass in the unemployment line, get these people out now!"

"Laser activity in sixty seconds."

Wilson took the hint and began escorting people out of the area while Jet dove back to his keyboard to try and override the virus. At forty five seconds he gave that up and ran over to physically pull the power cord out of the medical laser, but he found that it was an industrial cord that needed to be screwed in.

At thirty seconds he was working the coupling as fast as he could, but found that someone had misthreaded it and the cursed thing wouldn't budge.

At fifteen seconds he heard the familiar whine of a servomotor moving to aim the laser. He looked up, expecting the laser to be aimed at him but instead saw it facing out into the demo area's seating. Fortunately most of the people were already out of the bay.

Ten seconds remained, and he pulled out his pocket knife. In a desperate attempt he tried to pry the plug out, but his simple blade was meant for more delicate work on the inside of a computer box, and bent on the heavy duty fitting.

Five seconds left, and he looked up to see the young blue haired girl with the amazing typing speed push one of her classmates, a girl with long blond ponytails out of the way of the coming blast.

At one second, Jet locked his eyes on the blue haired girl and whispered, "I'm sorry."

An intense prismatic beam shot out of the reprogrammed medical laser, striking the girl. For a moment, it looked as if it had done no damage save to freeze the girl in place. But to the horror of the young blond on the floor, the laser continued to strike out at her friend as a grid of light appeared across her body. With every flash from the laser, one of the grid boxes across the schoolgirl vanished, leaving only a ghostly outline in its wake.

The beam continued its work, and soon the last of the grids were empty. The beam discontinued in a flash of light, and Ami Mizuno was gone.

"NO!"

The shout came from Jet, the blond girl, and a taller brunette that was helping her to her feet. Jet ran back to his terminal to make sure the procedure went all the way through, but was grabbed by the shoulders and spun around to face the tall girl again.

And boy did she look pissed.

"What have you done to Ami?!"

Japanese may not have been Jet's first language, but the menace in the tall girl's voice was clean in any tongue.

He managed to speak, "There's a problem with the system. Your friend may be alive, but digitized. Please, let go so I can try and help her."

"Makoto," a soft voice whispered. Jet looked past the girl holding him to see the blond, tears in her eyes, walk up and place a hand on one of the brunette's strong arms. "He says that Ami may be alive. Please let him help us."

Fighting down her anger the girl, Makoto, released Jet and took a step back, "All right, Usagi."

Jet nodded his thanks and dropped into his chair, turning to face the terminal again as he spoke into his headset microphone, "Ma3a, it looks like it's happening all over again."

.COM///

///Invalid Sysop///

ver. 2.3 Verified///

Ami blinked as she became aware of her surroundings once more. She found herself standing in a dark room, or rather it seemed dark. The walls were pitch black, but there seemed to be soft blue lighting emanating from the line where wall and floor met. Looking further she saw that the floor immediately around her was inlayed with three wide blue circles, one outside the next.

It was when she looked down that she saw that not only were her surroundings different, but her apparel had changed as well. In place of her shoes and school uniform was a blue bodysuit of some kind that hugged her form tightly. Over her feet were a pair of heavy looking boots and on her arms were gloves that ran up to her elbows. The entire outfit was trimmed with a pattern of blue lines and nodes, topped of with a circle of blue on her chest that was divided into three wedges.

She reached up and tried to take off one of the gloves to get a feel for the suit, but she found no seam in the garment. She tugged at her arm, and was shocked that instead of fabric pulling away from her skin, she felt the pinching of her fingers directly. Forcing down a wave of panic, Ami took an experimental step and the sound echoed strangely, almost with an electronic distortion to it.

"The digitization seems to have left you disoriented," a monotone voice said from behind her, and Ami whipped around, drawing every ounce of instinct she had developed as a hidden hero for love and justice. Scanning the room, she only saw a floating geometric shape hovering against one wall.

It glowed with a blue white light, and suddenly pulsed as the voice spoke again, "If you will follow me, Ma3a has sent a contact signal to the I/O port. Apparently, someone is trying to connect to you from the real world."

"Real world," asked Ami and found that like her footsteps, her voice had gained a bit of distortion. "What do you mean, and what are you?"

The glowing construct seemed to drop slightly as it replied, "I am a Byte, and by the real world I mean the real world. Please follow me."

The geometric construct floated away and down a corridor off to the side of the room, leaving Ami alone in a rare confused state.

"The real world," she spoke softly to herself, "meaning that this is some other world. And that thing called itself a Byte and mentioned an I/O port." She looked back down at herself and began to see a pattern in the lightly glowing details of her new skin. "Circuitry," she realized, "This is circuitry, and a byte is a packet of eight bits of information. This world is like a giant computer." She began walking after Byte, hoping that whoever was trying to contact her from the 'real world' knew what was going on.

She walked down the path Byte had taken, running her hands along the perfectly smooth wall. As she did, she found one more piece to her new ensemble, a strange buckler attached to her shoulder. It was a disk with layered circles on its surface like the pad she had awoken on, and in its center was the three wedged symbol that also adorned her front. Touching it with her opposite hand, she found the odd armor came off instantly and fit comfortably into her hand.

"Byte," she called out to the floating construct, "What is this?"

The glowing shape stopped and replied, "That is your Disk. Please be careful with it as it is your primary means of attack and defense. One strike from it and I would be instantly de-rezed." With that, Byte floated on, but that answer did not satisfy Ami as she caught up and continued.

"So it's a weapon of some sort?"

"Correct. If you throw it and it makes contact with a program, they will lose cohesion and de-resolution. You must be careful with its use as it will ricochet off walls and other solidly coded constructs."

Ami blinked at the explanation. She looked over the disk and realized that the object would operate much like Usagi's, as Sailor Moon, magically charged tiara in action. She placed the disk back on her shoulder and hoped that the numerous, and often ridiculous, training that she and her fellow Senshi had gone through would give her the basic skills to use the disk. She had seen Moon use her attack many times in many forms, and decided that her powerful memory would be put to the test to recreate her friend and leaders actions.

Presently the pair arrived in a new chamber, this one much larger and open. Ami looked up to see a clear, dark sky with beams of light shooting into the heavens far away. Ahead of her, a long stretch of walkway extending out over a pool of softly glowing liquid. She knelt before the strange fluid and reached out to touch it, but before she did, she got the first good view of her new appearance in the pool's reflection.

Her new blue second skin hugged her body even closer then her magic sailor suit when she was powered up, and she saw that the digital boots, gloves and her disk made her seem to be a futuristic knight in glowing blue. She found comfort in the color, as it closely associated with all the good she had done in her alter ego. Finally she took in her hair. It had for the most part remained the same, bright blue in a short cut, but there were sparkles all across her head and when she brought one free strand forward to investigate she found that the hair had changed into a kind of micro fiber that glowed like her armor.

"Excuse me," Byte's voice startled her and she looked back up at the construct, "but a User is waiting for you to contact them. Please hurry to the I/O node."

Standing again, Ami walked along the walkway to where Byte floated next to a simple sphere with an attached dial of sorts. She reached out and touched it, and it spun in space until the dial opened into a monitor of sorts.

///Accessing I/O grid///

/"Ms Mizuno, are you there?"/

Ami watched the monitor as an icon of a spinning triangle appeared on the screen and a voice seemed to resonate out to the node. She almost took a step back but kept her hand on the node, seeing it as a lifeline back to her world.

In as strong a voice as she could muster Ami answered, "I'm here, but I'm not really sure where here is. Who are you?"

/"My name is Jet. I'm the technician that was trying to shut the laser down before it fired. I'm here with your friends now, and I'm going to do everything I can to get you back. But there may be a few snags with that."/

Ami nodded, unsure if the young man on the other end of the connection could see her, but taking a moment to organize her thoughts. She began simply enough, "I'm inside the computer, aren't I?"

/"Yes. The laser was reconfigured by an outside hack when they were trying to steal some of my father's research from Ma3a, an A.I. that helps with high level computations. The hacker accidentally triggered the digital scanning and transfer software, and you were hit and stored electronically inside the server. Welcome to the club."/

"This has happened before?"

With a smirk in his voice, Jet answered, /"To myself, my father and before us my godfather. Look, we don't have a lot of time, so I need to tell you what you need to do from your end. I've isolated the server so the virus that got the algorithms needed to return you to the real world can't escape. As a User, you have a lot of power inside the system, so you can probably track it down faster then I can. I'll send you some help, and you can go look for the data, and hopefully get it back."/

///CONNECTION TEMINATED///

Ami let go of the node and shook her head, taking in what she had learned.

"Please follow me to the routing platform," Byte intoned and began to float away.

Ami followed, thinking to herself, _I'm inside a computer, and this is all real. Jet said that this has happened before, and he's alright. Add the fact that I have a hidden power…_

She stopped and considered this for a moment. Did she have her power? Would the magic that transformed her into Sailor Mercury work inside this digital realm? Putting her hand behind her, she triggered the mental command to retrieve her transformation pen from subspace, and crossed the fingers of her other hand. With a flick of the wrist, she felt the familiar and comforting weight of the pen in her palm, and for a moment considered transforming right then and there.

Pulling the pen out in front of her, she found that it too had changed slightly. A circuit pattern now adorned its surface as well, and it pulsed with power in her hand. The small crystal on its top that held the symbol of her alter ego was now free floating a few millimeters above the pen, spinning slowly.

She sighed and returned the pen to it's storage as she followed Byte, _I can't call for that power just yet. I have no way of knowing how the magic will work in here, and Jet may still be watching. Better to hide Sailor Mercury until she's absolutely needed._

Ami found her walk at an end as Byte led her into a chamber with another glowing circle on the floor. A soft column of white light reached up into the digital sky. She walked up to the platform and could feel the pull of the energy, and figured that this was the routing platform Byte mentioned.

"Where will this take me?"

The floating construct pulsed his answer, "To main memory where Ma3a has sent your help. Once you arrive she will find you and help you find the intruder. For what it's worth, good luck and may the Users watch over you."

Ami stepped onto the platform, recognizing an almost religious tone to Byte's farewell. She gave the small construct a smile as she felt the light begin to tug at her body and with a rush of power the scenery around her changed.

She found herself stepping out of the beam of light in a new location. A large city like landscape spread out before her with glowing lines of many colors pulsing along the walls. Around her was the bustle of a city as well, but carried out by people dressed similar to herself in glowing neon. She looked around to see people carrying packets, talking in small groups, or hurrying about other business.

She stepped off the platform and wondered at the sight, and in her musing was caught off guard when a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Are you Ami One?"

Spinning in place, Ami faced another blue clad female. She was taller by a head, and stood with an air of confidence with her hands on her hips. Her outfit was similar to Ami's, but no symbol adorned her larger chest. She had a serious expression on her angular face, and her head was topped by swept back spikes of digital blue hair. Slowly, Ami nodded her answer to the woman's query, and was rewarded with a small smile.

"I am Mercury," she told Ami, "And Jet told me that you are a User like him. I'd welcome you, but I know we have little time. We should head out at once to find the correction algorithms so you can return to your own kind."

Ami blinked, "Mercury?"

"Yes. I am Version 8.7 to be precise. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," the girl quickly said, and looked away to hide her surprised eyes for a moment. To travel to a world inside a computer was one thing, to find a person, or rather a program, that used that particular name was quite another. Ami knew that there were a number of reasons a program could be named Mercury, and hoped that the coincidence was of little importance, but that didn't help her from feeling a little thrown off by the meeting.

"I'll lead us to the main memory core, and from there we can begin our search," Mercury said, turning to leave. Ami followed behind noticing the elaborate patterns on her new comrade's back. She also noticed that unlike her, Mercury seemed not to have a disk, instead there was a short rod attached at her waist above her posterior. Ami guessed that this could also be a weapon or tool of some kind, and hoped that if they were to run into trouble that the older looking woman was skilled in combat.

Then again, they were inside a computer, and even as a Sailor Senshi Ami was not the front line fighter of the group. Without her friends and teammates to back her up, it looked like it would be up to her and a digital doppelganger to find a way out.

///END OF SEGMENT///


	2. CHKDISK

Jet looked down at his hands and found them to be shaking slightly. The last few minutes had been a blitz of typing to try and recover the lost data that would return Ami Mizuno to the real world, but every trick he tried seemed to weaken the server's ability to fight back against the intruder. It was his responsibility to get that innocent girl out of the computer world.

And here he was, failing.

Ami's friends, Makoto Kino and Usagi Tsukino were standing behind the young tech as he continued his efforts. The tall brunette, Makoto, was still glowering at the back of his head, and it was not helping his nerves. Usagi, the blond with the odd hair style, on the other hand was almost serenely calm, aside from a few excited outbursts whenever it looked like Jet was making progress.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't convince himself that the two young ladies needed to leave. Secrets or not, their friend had been dragged into this mess against her will, and he felt a great responsibility for the young schoolgirl now trapped inside the world of the computer.

On the screen in front of him was a jumble of code that constantly scrolled past his eyes. Jet looked for any trace, any clue as to where the intruding search program had hidden itself, but the program had spawned subroutines that began attacking different sections of the main memory. He knew that Ami, and his newest version of the gamebot turned security program, Mercury, were headed to that block of memory.

He looked back at the girls hanging on his every action, "Your friend is in good hands. If they get into a tight spot, she will be protected."

"Don't worry about Ami," Makoto said with a small smile, "She has been through more than you know." The brunette stopped there and went back to staring at the spot where her blue haired friend had disappeared.

Usagi added, "I believe in her. And I believe in you too Mister Jet. I know she'll be back."

Jet smiled at the faith of the two girls, and cracked his knuckles before attacking the keyboard once again, "Then let's rock the system."

Mercury 2.0

A TRON/Sailor Moon story

By Seth

Part 2: CHKDISK

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. Paid for in part by No One in Particular, Inc. and a few charitable trusts.

///

///ROUTE ver. 2.3///

///ROUTE MERCURY ver 8.7///

Two blue clad forms appeared on the transfer platform that led into the Main Memory district and stepped forward toward the security program that stood guard. One was familiar to the ICP Sentry and he raised one red glowing gauntlet as a greeting.

"Greetings, Tracker Mercury," he called. He noticed a similar, but slightly shorter figure besides the freelance security program and added, "Is this a new subroutine?"

Mercury looked down at her smaller companion and shrugged, "Sort of. We're here investigating an illegal entry in the mains, may we proceed?"

The guard stood aside and watched the two walk on into the cavernous city of Main Memory. As they left the platform behind, Ami looked up at her digital companion and wondered as to her position in this strange world.

"Mercury," she asked with some hesitation, "What do you do here? If you don't mind my asking, that guard seemed very polite to you."

The taller woman smiled lightly, "That wasn't so much for my function as for my history. An earlier version of me helped stop a viral invasion that almost destroyed the network. I also have a reputation from the time before that as a Video Warrior."

Ami took this in and continued her questioning, "And a Video Warrior?"

"Plays games."

Ami nodded, "So how did you go from a Warrior to an Anti-viral program? What was the reason for the upgrade?"

To Ami's amazement, Mercury actually seemed to blush a darker blue for a moment before answering, "I met a User during the infection. He and I fought side by side against Thorn and later a group of evil Users called Datawraiths. When it was over he returned to his world, but there was a connection of some sort, and he reprogrammed me to continue his work here. He wasn't at all like what I thought a User would be." She looked at her companion and added, "I don't think you are either."

Ami glanced at the older looking woman, wondering if the program was in love. She shook her head for a moment, realizing that she was talking to a digital construct, and with that realization, she began to wonder about what she had always took for granted. Did the Mercury Computer she used in the real world have life inside it as well? What would those programs think of their 'User'? Would they be proud, like her, that they were able to help people, or would they even know?

Sighing deeply, Ami decided that if she thought too hard about it she would never come to an answer, but she did know that she would never look at the small palmtop computer from millennia ago the same way.

The women worked their way deeper into the digital canyons of memory as Mercury kept her eyes in motion. Ami noticed the growing apprehension in the program next to her and looked around as well. She saw that the population was slowly thinning as fewer and fewer of the glowing residents seemed to move in the opposite direction of their progress. They soon came upon another guard program that stopped them from going further.

"Sorry Mercury," he stated, holding up a hand, "This sector is being closed by Central Processing. There's some kind of cache problem up ahead, and programs are being diverted to the secondary sectors."

Mercury glided up to him and stated simply, "That's why we're here. I and my new partner have User priority to investigate the area."

"I don't know," the guard said, his hand reaching for a wall panel with an odd control. Before his hand reached the panel, Mercury's own hands dipped down to her hips and drew two short rods with prongs on the end. In a flash they were at the neck of the security program and sparking.

Ami jumped back with a startled cry, "What are you doing?"

"This null is wasting time and memory. He was about tot call for backup to stop us when we have priority access. I don't like being interrupted mid function," she told the girl. Turning back to the guard she added, "Be grateful that my friend has me in a good mood. You're pretty dull for an ICP, but I'm letting you off lightly since you don't seem to know who I am."

The guard gulped and lowered his hands in surrender. With a flick, Mercury's weapons were put away, and the glowing blue woman glided past the red man. Ami watched her partner move away and bowed to the guard briefly.

"Pardon us," she said quietly, "We are under a great deal of stress and my friend seems to be very mission driven."

Taken aback by the assault from one female program, and the formal sounding apology from the other, the guard could only mumble out, "No…No problem. We all have cycles like that I guess."

Throwing the guard a nervous smile, Ami bowed again and jogged off after Mercury. Catching up, she fell into step with the taller woman and frowned at the program's serious expression.

After a moment Mercury saw the disappointment in Ami's eyes and asked, "What's with you?"

"You were very rude back there. He was only doing his job…or performing his function. You had no right to threaten him like that."

Mercury quirked an eye and said, "He was slowing us down. Every moment that we waste is an opportunity for the intruders to get away. If he had wasted more resources, I would have de-rezzed him."

Ami almost shouted, "No!" She took a deep breath and then continued, "If I've learned anything over the last few years, it's that no one deserves to be destroyed for simply doing what they are told. I've faced people who seemed truly evil, more so than a security program doing his job, and many of them were redeemed because someone gave them a chance."

Mercury looked at the girl in amusement, "No disrespect to a User, but a young girl like you has not seen evil. Viruses that corrupt and worms that steal, we fight those on a daily basis in here. If you serve no function, then you are discarded."

Ami shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I can't agree with you. It just seems so…heartless."

The taller woman shrugged, "We weren't created with hearts, only function. Hearts are for Users."

"Usagi would disagree with you," Ami breathed out, steel in her voice. Mercury looked down to see the conviction in her companion's eyes and wondered, not for the first time, what Users were exactly.

When Jet had roamed the digital corridors of her world, he had created feelings of compassion and closeness that she couldn't quite fathom. And now this girl, younger then Jet, showed a fire that was stronger then any she had seen before. What was a heart, and why did it seem so important to these powerful beings from the other realm. Before she could further this line of questioning, however, her attention, and Ami's were drawn to a molten green crack in the walkway ahead of them.

Kneeling down beside it, Mercury saw the fracture in the structure of the system and knew that they were drawing close to their destination.

"This is a sign of stress on the system," she told Ami, "The invaders are drawing a great deal of power and runtime, and it's beginning to wear out the sector. We'll need to move quickly to stop this from spreading."

Ami held her hand up, "But we can't just go charging in, we need to gather information first. We need to find the force arrayed against us, and where they are keeping the stolen data. Stealth over speed."

The former Gamebot looked at the girl across from her and nodded at the wisdom, "Alright. I'll take the lead, after all I promised to keep you safe." With that the two glowing blue women moved quickly and quietly into the large structures of the memory block.

Ami fell back on years of experience fighting monsters in the city and let her ears search for any sound that seemed out of place. She found it difficult due to the electronic echo that seemed commonplace in this realm, but she didn't stop trying to adjust. She also found herself distracted by the digital surroundings, and often caught herself enthralled by the fluctuations of power visible from storage blocks that made up the walls here, or the geometrically shaped panels in the floor.

She also was fascinated by the way Mercury moved in front of her. Having seen her friend, Makoto, fight both in human form and in her super powered alter ego, she saw that the program had the poise of a fighter, her long legs tensed with every step, ready to strike out in an instant. The young woman felt a familiar pang of jealousy over Mercury's grace, but let it go, knowing that she too was a warrior, only of a different nature.

After a time, the two cautiously moving women made their way into the central block of the main memory. Ami had found a ramp leading to high ground on one of the towers surrounding the I/O node for the area, and she and Mercury had stealthily taken place above and looked down into the clearing.

Below them they saw a small group of programs, a deep purple in color, moving a stack of memory caches onto a floating platform. Another group was adjusting what looked like a hastily constructed pad of the type that Ami had used to transport from one sector to another.

"A backdoor routine," Mercury said quietly, indicating the pad as one program ran a clear cable to the I/O node and began splicing the constructs together. "I think they are trying to get out of the system, but it's supposed to be locked down. If they can make a transfer, we'll never find them."

Ami nodded, "Then we need to stop them now. How many of those programs do you think you can handle?"

"Not enough," Mercury replied.

Ami scanned the assembly with her eyes and counted their opponents in her head, "We need a distraction. If one of us can lead off a group, then the other can get in close and cut that cable. It won't stop them, but it will slow them down."

"I guess I'd better get started," Mercury said, and began working her way back towards the ramp. Ami stopped her at the top of the ramp, however.

"I'll be the distraction. I'm not very good at close in fighting, and all I have to do is get them to follow me back to the guards. Once there, I'll have plenty of back up, and can come back to help you."

Mercury attempted to stop the young User, but the blue haired girl was already running down the ramp, pulling her disk from its shoulder mount. Letting out a sigh, Mercury hid as best she could and hoped that Ami knew what she was doing.

Ami, meanwhile, crept up to the enemy encampment, moving from cover to cover as best she could. Finally, she sat behind a stack of data blocks with one of the purple armored programs on the other side. She quickly peeked over the barrier and found that he was watching his cohorts work, and crept on top of the stack, bringing her disk back so that it was ready to strike.

"Excuse me," she said quietly. The enemy guard spun around, surprise on his face, and Ami whipped the disk around to hit him with the flat side across the jaw. He spun around, caught off guard and let out a shout of pain as he dropped to the ground.

The other programs noticed her then, and several let loose with a volley of disks and odd rifle like weapons. Ami rolled back, falling behind the barrier and moved to peek around the edge. As the disk flew by, arcing around to return to their owners, she moved quickly out from behind cover and let her own disk fly, attempting to copy her friend, Usagi, and her attack style.

She didn't bother seeing if she hit anything, instead she copied another of her friend's moves and started running like hell. She looked back to see that many of the guards had indeed given chase, but were being outdistanced by a blue streak headed right for her. Somehow sensing what it was, Ami reached out and caught her returning disk. She didn't bother with another throw, as she found herself too busy dodging energy blasts sent her way by the perusing programs.

She knew that in her civilian form she wouldn't be able to outrun the attacks long, but Ami only needed to travel a few more minutes. She felt an energy blot graze her, and winced in pain as she looked back to see how many were following her. Out of the fifteen or so programs at the platform, seven were hot on her heels as she rounded a corner, only a few dozen yards from the security checkpoint that she and Mercury had passed earlier.

For the guard standing watch, it was a surprise to see the unusually polite Tracker that had spared him from her partner's wrath barrel around a corner at full tilt. Her legs were pumping like crazy, and the taller construct was nowhere in sight, but a group of unidentified programs came around the corner right behind her, and the young guard felt a moment of panic.

That is until the blue girl shouted out, "Sound the alarm!"

He reached out and triggered the Security Rezzing Station next to him as the girl sped by, coming to a stop behind him and turning, disk in hand. The seven charging purple programs stopped and took aim at the two, but as they fired two additional red colored guard programs teleported in.

The more experienced ICP troopers saw the incoming fire and swung their large riot style shields around to intercept the destructive pulses. As the attack was blocked, they smoothly drew their own disks and prepared to return fire.

Back in the center of the sector, Mercury flowed out of concealment, attacking the remaining intruders with her charged batons. With quick strikes, she dropped three guards as the other programs stopped their work to charge her. With a flip of the wrist, she brought her batons together to form a single rod, and with a command it extended out to a long staff.

Moving with the grace she had gained in her time as a warrior on the Game Grid, Mercury moved to attack the remaining purple programs All the while keeping her goal, the cable, in sight.

Ducking a clumsy disk throw from one of the loader programs, she slid the end of her staff into his stomach. In a flash of light, the program dissolved, and Mercury spun her staff around to deflect another attack.

Back at the ICP guard station, heavy troopers met attacking intruders in a three on seven battle. Ami hung back, still unsure of her skill in the ranged combat that the guards were engaged in. When one of the energy pulses from the attackers hit the guard that had summoned help, Ami was jolted into action. He was falling backwards, but she slid behind him.

"I've got you," She said softly, her eyes running across the circuitry armor, looking for injury. He attempted to croak a reply, but before her horrified eyes began to fade from existence in her arms.

_You always wanted to help people, to heal people, _she thought to herself. _Now you get the chance, and there's nothing you can do._

He had almost faded from sight, and let out a small cry, "The Users…"

Shocked, Ami replied, "I am a User." Then with more confidence, she repeated, "I am a User!" Grabbing the guard by his slowly fading shoulders, she reached deep into herself. It was a place that she normally found the magic that enabled her to transform and fight evil, and she had heard Rei, a friend, shrine maiden and fellow champion of love and justice, call it her chi center. She desperately grabbed the energy there and forced it out.

A soft blue glow encompassed the area behind the two shielded guards covering their downed comrade and the young program holding him was its source. The ICP troopers and even the attacking programs stopped for a moment to stare in wonder as the dying guard began to reform. With each passing moment, his form sharpened and solidified, until he was once again whole in the arms of the small blue girl.

"You are a User," he gasped in awe.

Ami helped the stunned program sit up, and then stood herself. She looked past the shields of the guards and saw the purple programs coming out of their surprise, readying another attack while sending a few of their number back into the memory sector. They would come up behind Mercury as the warrior was working, and Ami could not allow that.

She began running towards the intruders, putting as much speed as possible into her sprint. It startled the attackers momentarily due to its recklessness, but they quickly brought their weapons to bare on the charging girl.

"Protect the User!"

The shout came from the resurrected program, and three red disks spun past Ami as she ran, slamming into the distracted programs. She continued her sprint past the renewed battle with far more even odds and ran after the two programs who were making their way back to their fellows.

They moved faster then her, however, and when she neared the final corner back to the I/O node and the backdoor platform the two combat programs had joined their remaining cohorts and overpowered Mercury as she attempted a final cut on the connecting cable with her staff.

Mercury was knocked away and landed on the platform as the purple programs quickly pushed the waiting floater onto the platform. She made to stand, but one of the large combatants stood over her, her own staff held in his hands and pointing at her throat.

"Get us out of here," the intruder yelled, "There's a User coming! If she gets here before the connection is made, we'll all be de-rezzed!" Mercury looked up in surprise and wondered what had the construct so unnerved.

Ami was only seconds away, but her legs were burning and she was short on breath. Never before had she pushed herself so hard in her normal form, and she knew that if she tried to attack the encampment as she was it would only lead to her and Mercury dying. Stopping at the edge of the wall before the enemy's position, she flexed her hand behind her back and drew out her transformation wand.

_I really hope this works,_ she thought silently.

"Mercury Crystal Power…MAKE UP!"

The raw magic welled up in her as it had so many times before, washing away Ami Mizuno with elemental water and covering her in the identity of the reincarnated warrior from millennia ago.

///Meanwhile in the Real World///

Jet pulled his hands back from the terminal as a new flood of data cascaded across the screen. The cooling fan on the primary server box kicked up in speed as a wave of light passed over the equipment. Once the light died down, Jet looked at the monitor to make sure that nothing was damaged.

To his shock, the data stream representing Ami in the digital world had been transposed with an all new set of…he wasn't sure.

"What the hell," he said aloud.

Makoto leaned over, looking at the screen, "What is it?"

"Ami must have done something big in there," the tech stated, "It's like she's over clocking herself or something. She's running with…I don't know…ten times the power she was using before."

Makoto shot a look back at Usagi and saw that the blond had one hand holding the broach in the middle of her uniform bow. For a moment she looked concerned, but a small smile appeared on her face.

"Don't worry, Mr. Jet," Usagi said in a calming voice, "Ami is just fine."

Makoto glanced at her friend and leader once more, and got a silent nod in return, then said aloud, "Go get 'em, girl."

///

///UPDATE: ver. 2.3 to SUPERSAILORMERCURY ver 2.3///

///PRIORITY ONE ACCESS GRANTED///

The purple guards watching for the arrival of the User that had brought a program back from deletion shielded their eyes as the blue light finally dropped in intensity. Then found themselves flatfooted when a powerful looking figure stepped forth.

It was a female program, shorter then most of the invaders, but carrying herself with confidence. Her blue form was covered across the chest and torso with white armor imbedded with pulsing blue lines of power. A skirt of blue filament wrapped around her waist and glowed with bright blue light at the edge. Her gauntlets were also white with blue circuitry and bore a strange symbol of a heart with a cross coming out of its bottom and a V shape sprouting from its top. Heavy boots of blue armor incased her feet and came up to the knees. Pulses of power raced along her brow and came together in the center of her forehead where a bright oval sat with its long axis vertical glowed with a deep power.

"I am Sailor Mercury, warrior of water and wisdom. And in the name of Mercury, you will be punished!" With that she jumped high into the air, leaping over the startled guards.

Ami's body sung with the magic that flowed in it, but here it was so different. It flowed through her as the waters did back in the real world, but there was a taste of electricity in it, like bottled lightning. As she reached the apex of her jump, she wondered if this was how the magic felt for Sailor Jupiter, the lightning warrior.

Clearing her mind, she brought one hand up and lightly touched the stud earring on her right lobe. The command, almost instinctual for her after so many battles, triggered the appearance of a blue visor that covered her eyes and began feeding information to her. She smiled when she discovered that a magical computer inside a regular computer seemed to be that much faster.

It quickly locked on to five worker programs and three combat types. Designating the program Mercury as a friendly, Ami descended and landed in the middle of the group, her arms crossing in front of her.

"Shabon Spray!"

Ami spun around and a static laden mist appeared blocking the view of the purple programs. A few fired blasts of energy randomly into the fog where the warrior had been, but the cries of their comrades indicated that the only targets hit were allies.

The digital blue warrior exited her mystic smoke screen and noted the positions of her targets on the visor. Its sight was not impeded by the cloud at all, and she began to mental task of focusing on the outlined enemies. She let her right arm move out wide and began sending power for her next spell. Her symbol on the back of her glove flared brightly as the power coursed through the circuits on her arm, and when the critical point was reached Ami activated the power.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

The harp that formed in her hands was not composed of water as it usually was, but the strange charged fluid that this world had. As Ami's fingers played across it, arcs of power passed back and forth and she knew that there was so much more about this world that she had yet to learn.

Finally, the spell complete, tendrils of magically charged power shot out from the Mercury Harp and raced into the rapidly dissipating fog. The enemy programs had only a moment to realize what approached them, but the fog had served another purpose, their reflexes had been slowed slightly by the mystic covering.

Digital water met program bodies and in flashes of light the attack discharged its power. Purple bursts accompanied the disappearance of each program as the power overwhelmed them, ending their ability to function.

Only one combat program had survived the onslaught. He had dived behind the few remaining data caches that were waiting to be loaded and the lines of energy that were directed at him dissipated harmlessly against the solid construct. Taking a heavy breath, he resolved to stay under cover for the moment, hoping that this super powered warrior hadn't noticed his escape. He hid quietly, waiting to complete the mission.

Meanwhile, Ami had deactivated her visor and trotted over to where Mercury sat; stunned at the power she had just seen. When the digital fuku clad warrior approached her, the taller program had to fight to keep herself flinching back from intimidation.

"Who are you," she asked in a shaky voice.

Ami looked down at the confused program and extended an arm to help her up, "A friend. My name is Sailor Mercury, and I'm a warrior of love and justice."

Mercury rose to her feet and looked down at the slightly shorter woman, "A warrior of love? How did one so powerful come to be?"

"I can't really tell you that much," Sailor Mercury said, "But I can say that the User known as Ami Mizuno sent me to help you."

Mercury gaped at the Sailor version of herself and said, "I've never seen anyone fight like that. No program, no User. How…how can you do all that?"

"Magic," the armored girl replied.

She was about to say more, but movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. A purple form dove for the I/O node, slapping its activator and causing a power surge to jump along the attached cable to the platform beneath the two Mercury's feet.

The backdoor opened, and with a flash of white light, the sector was empty.

///Back in the Real World///

"Damn!"

Jet's curse made the girls behind him stiffen as he slapped his hands down on the keyboard.

"Ma3a," he shouted, "Try and run a trace on whatever just happened!"

The synthesized voice responded, "It's no good, Jet. The hack already closed itself off. I only have fragmentary address code at best."

"Damn," the tech restated as he lowered his head in defeat.

"What happened," Usagi asked with a wide, worried look.

Jet responded by pointing at the screen and sighing, "Their gone from the system."

Three lines of text were all that was left on the screen.

///MERCURY ver 8.7 DISCONNECTED FROM SYSTEM///

///SUPERSAILORMERCURY ver 2.3 DISCONNECTEDFROM SYSTEM///

ver 2.3 FILE NOT FOUND///

///END OF SEGMENT///


	3. FORMAT

The sensation was not unlike tumbling from a great height, but when it came to an end, Sailor Mercury found herself once more upright and standing. Next to her was the program Mercury, and she recovered faster then her human friend.

Moving swiftly, Mercury pulled her Rod primitive out from its leg mounts and swung into a defensive stance facing a horde of purple hued programs arrayed around the outside of the platform she was on. A fight was hopeless, unless the strange warrior that claimed her name with the addition of a Sailor prefix could deliver yet another miracle.

Ami was shaken out of her stupor by the actions of the warrior program next to her, and looked around to see their new location. It was a large room with many stacked data caches and a few doorways leading out to other areas. Then she took note of the many guards bringing rifle like constructs to bear on the duo. The odds were too great, and even if Mercury was willing to battle on, Sailor Mercury could not bring herself to face so many at once.

Slowly the blue haired warrior raised her hands above her head.

Mercury 2.0

A TRON/Sailor Moon story

By Seth

Part 3: FORMAT

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. Signed sealed and delivered, I'm yours.

Ami had to fight to keep her hands from shaking as the guards trained their weapons on her and Mercury. She hoped that her gesture of surrender would be enough to placate the angry looking group.

Next to her, the warrior program Mercury considered her options. The blue program next to her, who claimed to be a Mercury variant designated Sailor seemed to pack considerable firepower, but the force arrayed against them was too great for them to handle alone. She allowed her Rod to return to storage and mentally accessed her subprograms in desperation. Drawing on an old favorite of her one time partner, Jet One, she pulled a pulsing green sphere from storage and tossed it lightly into the center of the massed guards.

"Get down," she called to her comrade and pulled the other female down by the skirt. The explosion of the Viral Ball primitive dispatched two of the purple programs and knocked several more off their feet as Mercury jumped up and redrew her Rod, cracking it over the head of the nearest guard program.

Sailor Mercury, even though she was surprised by the apparent grenade attack, managed to shake off the confusion and land a magically enhanced kick to another guard grabbing its weapon and bashing another program in the face with the construct. She spun on one booted heel and threw the weapon, knocking off the aim of another guard who was gunning for her.

Ami fought desperately, but found herself wincing ever time one of the attackers disappeared in a digital flash. For years she had fought monsters and aliens alongside the other Sailor Senshi, but here in this digital realm she found herself locked in a battle that felt more like war then any conflict she had ever been in.

Spinning in place she once more called on her magic and released a cloud of fog to cover her movements. Dashing back to Mercury's side she found that the blue warrior had also captured one of the enemy weapons, but she was actually using the rifle like construct.

"We need to fall back and find cover," Ami called to her.

Mercury nodded in agreement, and the two females began working their way through the cloud towards one of the doors in the side of the room. Sailor Mercury led them out, avoiding the bulk of the remaining guards by using her magic to see clearly through the fog. Once outside the room, they found themselves in a corridor that stretched far in both directions. Mercury took off at a jog, Ami hot on her heels.

They passed many side corridors, but unless another group could be heard coming they stayed on the main path. They finally reached an aperture that seemed to head outside and stealthily approached. Two guards stood watch outside the portal, and the two blue warriors quietly took them out and moved onto the platform just outside the digital building.

Looking slowly around they saw the neon sky was not still. A further exploration led to the discovery that the building was in fact a moving transport riding a beam of energy over sharply angled mountains far below.

"I see that you have found that escape is pointless," a voice said from behind them. They turned back towards the transports entrance and saw a tall and very heavily armored purple colored program flanked by four more guards. He moved forward slightly and raised a warning hand.

"I know of your reputation as a warrior, Mercury," he said, indicating the program, "and I assure you that my routines are far superior to yours. As for you," he tilted his head towards Sailor Mercury, "I was privileged to see your power in action back on the ENCOM portable server thanks to the uplink from one of my troops there. I do not know who you are, conscript, but your coding is quite unique. I'm almost glad I was able to retrieve you instead of the User that was there."

Ami stood tall and proud, drawing from the strength that had served her through countless battles and called out, "What you have taken is not just data, but the hard work of those who created it. In the name of Mercury, I will punish you."

"How quaint," the imposing program chuckled, "but I doubt invoking the name of a glorified gamebot will help you now."

Ami looked down at said gamebot who knelt beside her, her hands lightly gripping the rods attached at her thighs. Their advisory saw the move and pulled out a triangular weapon similar to the ones Ami saw before, but it quickly changed to form a long staff with a comet like tip. In a flash the tip separated from the rest of the weapon and shot towards the two blue women.

Mercury reacted quickly, leaping into a shoulder block that knocked Sailor Mercury over, and then continued to roll away from the point of impact as quickly as she could, almost dragging the surprised magical girl with her.

The projectile detonated in the space the two had just vacated, and the result was extreme. An explosion of energy was quickly countered by the creation of a swirling distortion in the air that seemed to hungrily devour the air around it.

"A Prankster Bit," shouted Mercury over the noise. "That lunatic could delete us all if he's not careful!"

The other guard programs seemed to share this opinion and carefully moved to put additional distance between themselves and the crackling vortex. This gave Ami the opportunity she needed as they were more spread and unable to cover each other as well. She reached back and pulled her disk from where it had shifted when she had transformed. It came easily off her back, and with a careful look she threw it low.

The blue disk shot away from her and skipped against the ground, ricocheting back up to slam into the chest of the Prankster Bit wielding attacker. He was knocked off balance for a moment, but that was all Sailor Mercury needed as she spun to her feet and launched a spell at two of the distracted guards.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

The jet of charged water impacted with one purple program, slamming him into the transports outer wall before moving on to his fellow who was pushed over the edge of the platform and plummeted out of sight.

Mercury was not inactive as her companion unleashed her unusual attack. Pulling her Rods loose, she snapped them together once more and triggered the command that changed them into the Diffusion weapon. She charged the other two guards, blasting one in the head and slamming into the other at a run, tackling him to the ground.

Ami had by this time ended her spell and caught her returning disk, only to be blasted in the side by another Prankster attack before she could get the disk around to block or deflect the explosion.

The blue haired girl screamed as she felt her arm tearing away, her eyes wide in horror as it seemed to be dragged, bit by bit into the deadly anomaly. As a reflex honed from facing supernatural attacks in the past, she pumped as much of her power as she could into a last ditch effort to defend herself. With a blinding burst of energy, the vortex winked out of existence, and spent, Sailor Mercury collapsed to her knees.

The two remaining functional programs looked at the warrior, mouths agape as her arm reformed out of nothingness, and the white and blue armor faded away, leaving Ami Mizuno in her simple tight blue bodysuit and light armor, her circuitry glowing very faintly.

"The User," mumbled the confused purple program as his weapon reverted back to its primitive rife function.

Mercury's reaction was simply to call out, "Ami One!"

She was about to dash to the fallen User, but a short blast at her feet from the Mesh rifle stopped her in her tracks. The heavily armed program moved over to the unconscious form and knelt, keeping his weapon trained on Mercury as he reached out to check on the downed form.

Pulling his hand back he almost laughed, "Amazing. Even a User should have been completely destroyed by a direct hit like that, but somehow she continues to function." Turning to Mercury he smoothly asked, "I don't suppose you have any idea how?"

Mercury only glared back in silence as more guard programs came out of the transport's entryway, weapons trained on her. She continued her silence even as the troopers led her to a holding cell. They also carried the still inert form of Ami and placed her in a cell as well, directly across form the still silent Mercury.

The leader then spoke to the warrior again, "My User was very interested in this strange new power that has been brought into our world. You would do well by your friend to tell me what you know, or she will suffer greatly as we try to discover this strange new coding."

The trapped gamebot only frowned, and with a smirk her captor continued, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Your loyalty to your User is exemplary, but futile. In the end, all that was ENCOM will fade and a new order will rise from the ashes."

Finally Mercury spoke, "What's your tag, vaporware?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Mercury smirked, "So I can etch it on Ami One's disk after it rips out your core routines."

The purple program barked a laugh, "I may keep you in a buffer after all. You're good for a few laughs. My designation is Nemesis, and after my User is done with the fallen one over there, there won't be enough left of her to put in a trash file." He turned away and walked out of the detention area, his mocking laughter ringing in Mercury's ears as she seethed in anger.

It was some time later then Ami started to come too, and her head pounded from the aftereffects. The first thing she took in was that she was still alive, and this surprised her to no end. After that she forced her eyes slowly open and took in her surroundings.

The light outlined black walls and faint blue glow from her own person gave her all the information she needed to deduce that the events that had occurred up till now were no dream, and she was still in the world inside the computer.

She took stock of her physical condition next, and found her body aching from exhaustion. This was no shock considering what she had put herself through, but the fact that she had reverted back to her normal form left her slightly bothered, and she wondered how much of her secret identity remained.

Slowly she sat up, fighting down the nausea that came with it and took a better look at her surroundings.

"Ami One," came a soft voice, and Ami turned to look out at the speaker. She found herself in a small room with only three walls, and across a corridor was an identical room with Mercury sitting on an identical bench. The blue woman looked in good condition, but had a wide eyed worried expression on her face.

He digital friend continued, "Are you all right?"

Carefully, Ami answered, "I'm drained, and shook pretty badly, but I think I'm all right. What happened after I blacked out?"

Mercury thought for a moment, and slowly responded, "When you…Sailor Mercury was hit she, you…began to de-rez. There was a blast of…raw power and the Prankster Bit was destroyed. Then you seemed to…defragment, and change into Ami One." Mercury took a breath, unsure of her own retelling, "What are you? Are you really a User, or something else?"

Ami considered this, and not on just what to tell the awe struck program. Whatever she told the digital Mercury she would have to explain in terms that the program could understand. After all, magic wouldn't be enough of an explanation to a being who had difficulty with emotional concepts.

"Out there, in the world of the Users, there are things that come from even other worlds as well. They aren't Users, like us, but they are as strong, and sometimes stronger then a normal User." She paused for a moment. "Think of these creatures like a virus in the User world, and a long time ago a powerful User called Queen Serenity created defenders, like you are. These ordinary Users became Sailor Senshi, and had the power to stop the viruses."

"And you are one of these Sailor Senshi Users?"

Ami considered this again, and slowly nodded, "I have the power to transform…reformat into Sailor Mercury, warrior of water and wisdom. But we keep our powers hidden so we can live normal lives."

"But why stay hidden?"

Ami laughed, "The world isn't ready to deal with us. We hold enough power to do great harm, and there are Users who would want that power for themselves. So we protect the world in secret, and keep people as safe as we can."

Mercury nodded, "It's just like Jet said. Our world isn't really ready for Users, and yours isn't ready to know about us. There is a wall of secrets between every world."

Ami shrugged and lapsed into silence. Looking around, she observed that while the room looked to be open, the glowing edges of the entrance were slightly more intense then the rest of the walls. Shaking off the last of her discomfort, Ami stood and walked to within a few steps of the edge of the room.

"There's something blocking the way out, isn't there," she stated simply.

Mercury nodded, "A force field. It's strong enough to deflect disk attacks, and a refection in this confined a space could be dangerous. We're trapped her until Nemesis decided what to do with us."

Ami shivered, "Nemesis?"

"Our host's identity."

Ami stiffly nodded, and moved back to sit on the bench in her cell. Once again a name that was probably reasonable in here was digging into her own life. Nemesis was also the home world of a group of adversaries she had faced before, and some of those battles had been less then pleasant.

"Too many coincidences," she muttered to herself. Taking a cleansing breath, Ami reached behind herself and gave the mental command to withdraw her Mercury computer. She guessed that since her visor had survived the transition to this world, then the palmtop computer that aided her in the past so much must as well. But no matter how many times she flicked her wrist and gave the command the device refused to drop into her hand. She tried to feel the connection to the ancient piece of equipment, but the tug she felt from her transformation wand was the only thing she could sense.

This caused her a brief moment of panic. As the warrior of wisdom she had often stated that information was power. And in that regard she had always took a secret pride in being the best informed of the Sailor Senshi. Mars had her spiritual power, Jupiter had physical strength, Venus seemed to never run out of energy and Moon…she was Moon and that was all she needed.

But it had always been Mercury who had deduced the enemy's weakness, or figured out how to save a life, because she was the best informed. Now her best tool for gathering data was gone.

Ami quietly collected herself and remembered that it wasn't the tools that made the Senshi. She still had her wits, her senses, and her formidable mind. She remembered that while the visor she used in battle was a magically created crystal, the Mercury Computer was a real item that had been given to her in her mortal form. It was magic to be sure, but it was based on wires and chips, just like everything else in here.

"It can't exist inside its own world," she reasoned to herself. Sighing, she leaned back against the wall of her cell and considered her options. According to Mercury, their captor was returning, and she was sure that if Mercury had seen her de-transform, then the other program had as well. And there was no telling what he would make of her ability.

"Mercury," she called out, "how much would it take to overload one of these fields?"

The blue warrior looked back to her companion and saw a smile appear on the girl's face as she reached out and with a flick caused a small construct shaped like a tiny blue rod to appear.

She answered cautiously, "Quite a bit actually. I've never been able to get past one. Why?"

Ami gave her a reassuring smile, "Because I think it's time Sailor Mercury returned, don't you?"

With that, Ami held up her transformation wand and shouted out, "Mercury Crystal Power…MAKE UP!"

As her shout echoed around the small cell, she felt a numb panic creep into her mind. There was no flash of light, no whirlpool of water sweeping away the student, Ami Mizuno and bringing forth the warrior, Sailor Mercury. The wand just sat in her hand, inert.

Forcing the panic down, Ami took a closer look at the wand. Its circuit patterns were dark, and the crystal that held her symbol was still and opaque. Squeezing the magical item in her hand, she held it up and tried once more, but to no avail.

Slumping back down against the wall, Ami collected herself. The magic that had been a part of her since she was fourteen had failed, but that wasn't all she was. Usagi had reminded them again and again that it was the heart, not the magic, that gave them power.

Then again, Ami's heart wasn't likely to smash its way through a computer generated force field.

"Are you all right?"

The concern in Mercury's voice shook her out of her downward spiral and reminded Ami that she wasn't alone here. She stood back up and looked at her companion through the invisible barriers that separated them.

"I may be," Ami answered, "but losing my magic is a little like losing an arm. I've used it for so long that I'm having a little trouble coping."

Mercury nodded, "Maybe, but were it not for your magic you would have really lost an arm. Could it be that you need to recharge in order to power up again?"

"Not likely in here," Ami answered. "I draw power from my planet, the world Mercury, and through the Silver Crystal. Nether of them exist here."

Mercury saw the edge of panic still in the User's eyes and decided to distract the girl, "There's a whole world named after us?"

Ami sensed the amazement, and concern in her counterpart's voice, and focused on the academic problem. She told her partner of the Greeks and the messenger god Mercury. She spoke of the ancient astronomers who looked beyond the confines of their world. She even touched on the Silver Millennium, and how they had tied a group of girls to the awesome energies that were created in nature.

Ami found herself calming. The sharing of information was something she enjoyed, and Mercury's look of wonder at the stories of the gods was an interesting sight indeed.

The older looking blue program had even dubbed the gods Super Users so that she could relate to them in her understanding of the world around her. She held Users in such high regard that the concept of beings beyond the understanding of the digital gods was hard for her to grasp.

That made Ami pause again. In here she was considered a god, and she had seen enough of the awe and reverence that Users received when she had brought that one program back from the brink of…

Ami bolted upright once more, staring at her own hands for a long time.

_I brought him back from death, _she thought to herself. _I used my power to heal him, and I still have that kind of power. I just have no idea how far in goes._

"I see you are functional once more," said a new voice, and Ami looked up from her hands to see the large purple guard that she had fought before.

"Nemesis, I presume," she said flatly.

He held up his weapon and smiled darkly, "My User is very interested in meeting you. The idea of your power intrigues him so. If you can give him access to this power, then he will be a god in your world as well as ours, and then there will be nothing stopping us."

Ami shock her head, "Others have tried to gain this power, and all have failed. Nether your or my world is ready for the depth it holds, and only those who cast off corruptions like greed can use it."

Nemesis barked out a long, contempt laden laugh, "Such tripe. Everything in the universe is obtainable, and concepts like purity and corruption are tools of weak minded fools who are too afraid to seize the power for themselves. Now then, you have an appointment with our inquisition chamber. I do hope you resist the probe."

The implication made Ami shiver, but his next action started Ami calculating again. Keeping his weapon trained on her, Nemesis reached to one side of the door and lowered the force field, motioning her to move out.

Digging into her memory, she recalled how Makoto, warrior of lightning, had taught her a few simple moves to protect her personal space on the bus or subway. Being attractive teenage girls had more then a few drawbacks, and more then once one of the disguised Senshi needed to dispense some justice to some creepy guy who let his hands wander onto their person.

Ami stepped slowly out of the cell, standing in front of the imposing warrior, and brought her foot down on top of his.

Hard.

For once she actually wished she had the high heels that Sailor Mars was cursed with.

She quickly followed with a hard fist to the gut, then jabbed both her captor's eyes with her thumbs. A swift kick to the groin, whether or not a program would be affected by such things she didn't care, and Makoto's teachings were complete. Nemesis was on the floor, and Ami was panting for air as the adrenaline rushed into her system. She walked shakily over to the panel controlling Mercury's cell and touched the switch, releasing her friend.

"Most unexpected," was Mercury's calm answer to Ami's excited state as she strode out and took Nemesis' weapon.

"Yeah," Ami said, trying to collect herself, "but it works on Loop Line gropers and evil guards alike. We need to get out of here."

The blue warrior woman nodded and looked down at the injured program that had been so menacing earlier. She brought her weapon to bear on him and Ami saw what was to come. For a moment she wanted to voice an objection, to stop what was about to happen.

She realized that Mercury was only doing what she was programmed to do, and whether it was by her hand or Nemesis' creator, the purple program wouldn't see another day.

Ami looked away as a burst of light signaled that the weapon had done what it was created for.

"Let's go," Mercury said as she walked past Ami and up the ramp back into the depths of the transport.

Ami only spared a quick glance at the space once occupied by her captor and spoke a silent plea, "Usagi, please get me out of here."

///Meanwhile in the Real World///

Jet had not given up, it just wasn't in his nature. Under the watchful eyes of Ami's friends he had connected his terminal to the internet, and Ma3a was once more diving into the sea of data, attempting to back track the intruder programs that had started this disaster.

"Cola?"

Jet looked back and saw that Usagi was offering a can to him, and her arms were burdened with a plethora of snack foods.

"Thanks," he said, taking the can. "How are you two holding up?"

Makoto rubbed her knuckles from where she bruised them punching the vending machine outside after it had tried to steal her money, "I really don't think these things like us."

The young American smiled at the two girls and managed to chuckle out, "I know how you feel. Sometimes these things get a little too much personality, and I don't just mean the programs. There was this damn water fountain back at ENCOM HQ that had it out for me and I…"

"Jet," came a sudden call out of the speakers."

Turning back to the screen he answered, "What is it, Ma3a?"

"The backdoor was older then we thought. It comes from before I was encoded into the system. Even before your father started working in the Laser Division. It looks like it was set up before Ed Dillinger was removed as CEO."

"Wow," Jet managed, "That's almost twenty years ago. What is it?"

"Something called .EXE"

///END OF SEGMENT///


	4. DEFRAG

Ami crouched behind a data cache with a Mesh rifle held in her hands. She wasn't very comfortable with the weapon, but in the last few hours she had come to recognize its necessity in the digital world. Across the way from her was the blue hued warrior, Mercury, who had once more drawn her endlessly useful Rod weapons and snapped them together to form a long rifle construct.

Quietly the program took aim down the corridor and fired. The shot seemed loud in the confined spaces of the transport, but it was necessary to drop the guard that stood watch over the transport platform, and a data cache that held their true objective.

The algorithms needed to return Ami to the real world.

In a flash the blue hared girl ran down the hall, her eyes moving quickly to make sure that there were no other threats as Mercury covered her from afar. Skidding to a halt, Ami reached out and touched the glowing crate, accessing it as Mercury had taught her.

In seconds she found the file she was looking for and pulled the small blue orb out of the cache and placed it on her waist where it disappeared into her belt, stored in memory for now.

But as she pulled out the data alarms began to sound and Mercury moved quickly to join Ami by the transport pad. The taller program let experienced hands glide over the control bits of the attached console as Ami trained her weapon on the entrance. She was unsure of her actions, but resolved to see the coming battle through.

"It's ready," Mercury called and moved onto the transmission disk, her LOL rifle swinging to cover Ami as the User joined her. A flash of purple armor appeared in the doorway, and Mercury took her shot. A lance of blue energy crossed the distance instantly and the guard was gone. A second program tried to enter, and Mercury's weapon was recharging, but before it was done a spray of bolts from Ami impacted against their foe and he faded into digital oblivion.

Ami caught her breath and said softly, "I'm still not used to doing this without my powers or the others…"

"Don't worry," the blue armored warrior next to her answered, "We're almost free."

And with that a beam of pure white light shot upwards, engulfing the two of them and shooting off into the electronic night.

Mercury 2.0

A TRON/Sailor Moon story

By Seth

Part 4: DEFRAG

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. Everybody, do the Monkey.

///ROUTE ver. 2.3///

///ROUTE MERCURY ver 8.7///

///FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE///

The commander of the transport read the display with a frown. Turning, he looked at the purple hued program that had just delivered the news of Nemesis' defeat and let out a low growl.

"I want that transmission traced, null unit," he said slowly. "Then I want a directory of every asset we have in the area. I will not have a pair of conscripts making me look a fool." The guard snapped a sharp salute and quickly left the commanders presence.

Almost in a whisper the tall, imposing red warrior said, "Never again."

Far away the white beam finished its journey, settling Ami and Mercury onto a transmission platform in the center of a bustling plaza. Ami had to fight the urge to once more look around in wonder at the digital realm. People, programs, were gathered and moving around the large square. Pairs and groups often stopped to speak with each other and the bustle and calls of code vendors reminded her of Shinjuku. A boxy transport even rode an energy beam high above the city as a computer analog of the Tokyo Loop Line.

"Are you all right Ami One," Mercury asked her User companion when she saw the smaller female hanging back.

Quickly the displaced girl pulled her eyes off the sights of the city and refocused on her guide, "Yes, just a little awed by all this. I still can't believe that all this is inside a computer. Everything I know has been changed by this trip."

Mercury walked back and placed a hand on Ami's shoulder, "Not unlike what you have done to me. To think there are things beyond the Users. It's amazing, and frightening at the same time."

Ami nodded. To the programs inside the machine the Users were all powerful. And nothing can disturb a faithful entity like the knowledge that there are even greater powers then those they believe to be gods.

It was humbling to Ami, even though she considered herself above average, to have someone strong and skilled like Mercury treat her as a deity.

Pushing that aside for the moment, Ami looked at Mercury and asked, "So where are we going now?'

"We may have gotten away for the moment," Ami's digital counterpart answered, "but they will be after us fairly quickly. We have to get you and the correction algorithms back to the ENCOM mobile server as quickly as we can so you can return to the real world. Our best bet is to lose any pursuit in the commercial sectors. And I know just the place to start getting lost."

Mercury pointed up ahead and Ami looked up to see a two story block building nestled into the cityscape. It was tall, and stood on a small jetty on what could almost pass for an electrically glowing bay. Its glowing lines pulsed with many colors as a low beat came from within, and two bulky light blue programs stood at the door, arms crossed and eyes sharp. Above the guards a sign proudly named the establishment.

The Progress Bar.

Inside Ami found a strange parallel to her own world. It was a club, plain and simple. Over the years with her friends she had been dragged into a multitude of similar establishments, often against her will. The pulse of music, the neon lights and the mingling programs were somewhat reassuring to the girl as Mercury led the way to the counter.

"Hey, Apple," she called out when she reached the bar, "seen any good patches lately. We had a peripheral give out on us."

The scraggily looking bartender put two containers of glowing liquid in front of Ami and Mercury and contemplated the request.

"Try upstairs, that bunch tends to gather in the com pit."

Mercury nodded and tipped back her drink, motioning Ami to do likewise.

"What is it?"

Mercury smiled at the smaller blue girl and answered, "Power. Not very pure, and not directly from a source, but after the cycle we've had I think we could both use a little pick-me-up."

Ami took a tentative sip, and felt an almost electric feeling as the liquid passed her lips. Instead of pain, however, she felt refreshed and allowed herself to drink slowly as Mercury led the way to the upper level.

As the music and light pulsed downstairs, the murmur of dozens of conversations filled the balcony like area above. Ami saw displays of raw code, pulses of light in artistic patterns, and a monitor showing a strange bike race of some kind. Finally the two of them stopped by an I/O node identical to the one Ami had used when she first arrived. Clustered around it were three young looking programs that were fiddling with a cube of code that seemed almost like a puzzle cube of some kind.

"Glitch," called out Mercury as she approached the node. One of the concentrating programs looked up and his face took on a panicked look. Grabbing the cube quickly, he made a break away from the other programs. Mercury sighed and took chase as Ami stood there, confused for a moment, and then darted off after the chase.

Soon, the program called Glitch found there was no more room to run away on the upper level of the club, and the only path down was behind his pursuer. He stopped, his back to a wall as Mercury stalked towards him, holding up his hands in a warding gesture.

"I swear by DOS," he yelled, "I haven't been anywhere near ENCOM in a long time! I don't even use their subroutines any more! Why are you after me!?"

Mercury sighed again, "Calm down, Glitch. I'm not after you this time." Waiting for him to calm somewhat, she gestured back to Ami, who had caught up. "I have a job for you that may help mitigate some of what you used to do against my User. My new partner has a little problem, and a code bot like you may be able to help."

"Ami looked at the nervous young program and asked, "And why does he think you are after him?"

"His User swiped a batch of trash files related to game development a while ago. His User then had him work them out into a copy of one of our beta tests. Glitch got really good at figuring out why code wasn't working right, didn't you?"

Glitch nervously nodded, "How could I know that he had stolen from ENCOM. I was just doing my job when you came in and almost off lined me. My User hasn't contacted me since, I swear."

"Do you really think he can help," Ami asked, "Its not like my problem is everyday in this wor…system."

Glitch seemed to take offence at this and forgot his situation as he answered, "There's no code I can't crack, no bug I can't fix. I'm the best there is, Pro.

"Maybe," Mercury replied, "but I would have taken any high level patch. You just lucked out, little bit."

Glitch grumbled, but Mercury's hand twitched towards her Rod weapon at her hip and his complaining stopped dead. With a confident smile Mercury turned to Ami and gestured towards the sufficiently cowed program.

"Let him see your pen."

Keeping her eye on the now curious male, Ami reached behind her back and brought out her Mercury wand. It still was dark, the light it once had absent as she passed the mystic artifact over to the wide eyed program who began examining it closely.

"I've never seen code this compact before," he mumbled as he turned the item about in his hands. "It's layered like a full up program, but it's almost like it needs more code to activate. What's its executable?"

"I am," Ami said simply.

Glitch blinked, looking at the young blue female, and instantly saw an almost invisible code tag between her and the item. Forcing himself not to gape, he turned back to the small tapered cylinder and continued his study.

"OK, I think I have something for you. It's out of power. Not just out, but drained past the point where it should have de-rezed. If it weren't for that odd tie to you, it would have gone bye bye."

Mercury looked down at Ami and asked, "How do you recharge it back in your…system?"

Ami knew of course. The magic drew mana fuel form her link to the planet Mercury. The volcanic world so close to the Sun allowed her to draw heat away, forming an elemental power over ice and cold water. The trouble was how she would explain such things to the program working on her pen that she wouldn't give away more secrets.

"It's complicated," was what she decided on.

Glitch shrugged, "Well, your best bet is a long soak in some power. Let it regain a charge. The problem is it needs to be tuned to the algorithm that this code bundle uses. I have no idea how to do that, short of drowning its counterpart here in a fresh source."

Ami took the wand back and looked up at Mercury. The taller program nodded and walked away from the relieved looking Glitch and headed off to a less crowded part of the bar. Ami followed her and joined her as she sat down on one of the couches.

After a long silence mercury sighed and said, "I'm sorry Ami One. I guess I had my hopes up too high that I would be able to restore your upgrade form."

"Don't worry about it," Ami answered and put her hand on Mercury's shoulder reassuringly. "Now that we have the digitization algorithm I'll be able to return to my world. Once I'm there I'm sure I'll be able to get my power back."

Mercury couldn't help but smile at her cheerful counterpart and nodded. "I just hope we don't run into any more trouble. Once I make contact with Jet it will be a race to make it back to the ENCOM server. If the com lines aren't tapped, we won't have any resistance."

"Then we should get going," Ami said. She lifted the last of her drink up, ready to finish it off. As the electric liquid touched her lips, she paused and wondered. Water had been her friend for so long, even before she became a warrior for love and justice. She was an avid swimmer for most of her youth, and the gaining of her powers made her seem more at home then ever in a liquid environment. Her dear friend Makoto had even once called her a mermaid.

Her musing was interrupted as Mercury stood and made her way back to the com area. Ami quickly followed, her train of thought pushed aside for the moment as her digital partner activated one of the free I/O nodes and entered a code.

///Meanwhile in the Real World///

"Yes!"

Jet's shout grabbed the attention of Usagi and Makoto and they perked up behind him as his fingers danced across the keyboard.

Eagerly, Makoto asked, "What is it?"

Jet smiled, "The program I sent to find your friend has finally checked in. And according to this, Ms. Mizuno is doing fine." Jet's smile remained as he heard the two girls sigh in relief behind him. "Care to hear from her?"

The answer was a loud stereo, "Yes!"

Touching a switch, Jet routed the translated digital audio to the terminal speakers, and Makoto and Usagi almost wept at what came out of them.

/"It always looked so easy on the other side of the screen"/

"Ami," Usagi shouted in joy, "Are you all right? What is it like in there? Is it all chippy and wirey? Are you OK? When are you getting back?"

Jet raised an eyebrow and looked back at the girls, "Chippy and wirey?"

Makoto smirked, "That's our Usagi for you."

/"I'm all right, Usagi,"/ Ami's distorted voice responded, /"And you wouldn't believe what it's like in here. We're getting ready to make our way back to you now, but Mercury thinks we may have trouble between here and there."/

Makoto looked at the speaker, fighting down a reaction, "Mercury? Um, who's that?"

Ami answered, /"She's a program from inside the machine world. She's a blue tinted warrior that reminds me a lot of you, Makoto. She's tough, strong, and ready for anything. She's been keeping me safe in here."/

Another voice cut in, /"I know that you want to talk to your friends, but we need to move soon, Ami One."/

/"Right. That was her. Anyway, she told me that Jet needs to get the laser ready to receive the algorithms, and that Ma3a should set up some defenses for the server because we may have company when we arrive."/

"I'll be ready for you, Ami," Jet said as he resumed his place at the terminal. "The lights are on, and the door is open."

"Good luck Ami," Usagi said to her missing friend.

Ami's voice answered before being cut off, /"I think I have a little left."/

Jet, Usagi and Makoto shared a look, and the technician resumed his typing.

"All right, Ma3a. Let's get ready for them."

Back inside the machine world the I/O node went dark and Ami gave a sigh at only hearing her friends for a few moments. She then saw that Mercury had gone stiff next to her and was glancing over the rail to the open floor below. Turning as the club's music suddenly cut off, she saw a large group of purple guards marching in and taking up positions in the bar.

The programs were led by a tall, imposing figure of glowing red who marched into the center of the quickly vacated dance floor and spoke with an authoritative voice.

"This partition has been annexed. If you are cooperative then we will let you go on about your business. However, if you chose to interfere then you will suffer the consequences." He paused and slowly turned about the room, taking in its occupants before continuing, "There will be no security coming for some time and I assure you my conscripts are well trained, as one here most likely knows."

He spread his arms out, gesturing to encompass the bar as several of the purple troops began moving through the crowd, "One among you is not what they seem. A connection was established here only moments ago, and was made by fugitives from our system. If these null units are not turned over to me I will be most…displeased."

"Not very subtle, is he," Ami whispered to her friend.

Mercury could only nod, "He must be a rouge security program, or…oh no."

Another program moved out of the crowd and slowly approached the towering red warrior, wringing his hands. Ami and Mercury couldn't hear his words, but they didn't need to.

Glitch had just told the red warrior they were here.

Instantly the warrior turned to his troops and barked a short order for them to check upstairs and a dozen of the guards moved to obey. Ami saw that the way down would be blocked and quickly looked around for another avenue of escape.

Mercury, meanwhile, was figuring the odds of success in combat. Though she and Ami had been able to win against groups of the purple programs before, it had been with the aid of Ami's other worldly powers. In addition the red warrior below was a new factor. His coding appeared older, but he moved like a seasoned fighter. She had seen it often in her days on the game grid; this one knew how to end a program's existence.

"We need to get out of here," both blue women stated at the same time.

Mercury grasped the rail, "Jump."

Ami looked at her in surprise, "What?"

"We have an element of surprise here. We can use it to make a break for the exit while their numbers are divided. We need to move quickly," Mercury said as she allowed a viral ball grenade to form in her hand.

Ami gulped, tentatively grasping the rail beside her partner. It was Sailor Mercury, not Ami, who would vault over the enemy and save the day. Now the schoolgirl was once more being pressed into service. But magic powers or not, Ami knew that she had a job to finish. She had to get home so that she could hold her friends once more, and tell Usagi that her heart could carry her through after all.

Now she steeled her heart and followed Mercury over the rail, jumping to the level below.

Two blue streaks fell from the upper level and began a hard run towards the door. A flash shot out from the taller of the two and blasted into the chest of one of the guards in their way. As the purple warrior vanished in a burst of pixilated light Ami took the lead and threw her disk hard catching his partner.

The rush of the attack caught many of the programs in the bar flat footed, but the red warrior in the center turned and smoothly drew his own disk, throwing it in the same motion. The red construct shot out, blazing ahead of the two runaway blue forms, and ricocheting off the closed door ahead of them.

Ami recovered her own disk barely in time to block the onrushing attack. Its impact shook her arms and knocked her off her feet. Swift as her name, Mercury caught the smaller female and cushioned her fall, but they were slowed. By the time they recovered their footing the red disk had already flashed back to the waiting hand of the red warrior and the remaining purple guards had surrounded them. Mercury's hands flashed to her hips, pulling her Rods free and snapping them together to form a staff, but the weapon was knocked away just as swiftly from a second strike by the red warrior.

"Brave," he commented with a sneer in his voice, "but utterly futile. The two of you were finished as soon as you escaped my witless subordinate. I must thank you for eliminating him as it saves me the energy. Now surrender, or will you show the same level of incompetence?"

Mercury sighed, once more pushed into a corner with few avenues of escape. This time, however, her captor seemed to share encoding similar to ENCOM's own security, and couldn't be taken as lightly. His troops were different as well; they seemed to move with more purpose and efficiency. Then Mercury saw it in their eyes.

They were terrified of this red warrior.

Collecting herself, Mercury looked over at Ami and saw that the girl had managed to get control of herself at this turn of events. She couldn't help but smile at the User who seemed to surprise at every turn.

Ami nodded to her friend and spoke to the warrior, "We will come peacefully now. But I must ask, your are different from those you command, and Nemesis before you. Who are you?"

"Sark," was the warriors answer.

Mercury stiffened and whispered in a small voice, "That's not possible. Tron destroyed you and the MCP at the dawn of the new Golden Age."

Sark barked a mirthless laugh, "That slave never understood how things work. Plans can be broken, but new plans can be built on the remains. Did you think my time was over? All the systems of the world will be mine thanks to the resources I've been given over time. ENCOM will fall, sooner or later. And the power of this accursed User will guarantee it."

"But how," Mercury asked, "how did you get these new troops? How did you know about the algorithms?"

"The answer is so simple, my dear," Sark replied. "My User knows well the power of the digital realm. And with the data you hold he can resume his plans, and resurrect the Data Wraths."

Mercury exclaimed, "You're with FCon! "

"Precisely."

Ami looked on, unsure of the history passing between these two. The one thing she was sure of was the multitude of weapons trained on her and her friend. Sark no longer seemed to be in a talkative mood and merely gestured to his troops to escort them out. Ami could only walk beside Mercury, who seemed in shock over the revelation of the warrior's identity.

Ami whispered to her, "Who is this Sark, and what is FCon?"

"Sark was the minion of the MCP. He's a program that once enslaved much of the network in its early days. He was supposed to have been destroyed long before I came into existence. As for FCon, they are a company that tried to buy out ENCOM recently, and were engaged in digitization experiments to enhance hackers to control the systems of every computer in the world."

Ami nodded her understanding and looked at the red back of their captor as he led the company back towards the entry port into this sector. She knew that if they reached the transport disk it would be all over for them as they would be once more trapped in enemy territory with a much tighter guard on them.

She saw that only a short distance separated them from the transport platform and knew that her time was up. To her right was the impossibly tall wall of the digital city and to her left was the glowing flow of energy that made up the water around this realm. The time had come to test her theory, but would the shot in the dark she came up with in the Progress Bar pan out?

Giving a reassuring smile to Mercury, Ami tightened herself, ready to spring like a coil. Her partner saw that she was getting ready to make a move and tensed herself as well.

But nothing prepared Mercury for Ami's next action.

The Blue haired User suddenly and violently pitched herself over the edge of the walkway and dove into the charged water that flowed below. Guards moved quickly and pulses of deadly energy lanced out after her, but to no avail as she passed beneath the surface.

Mercury looked on in shock. She knew that her young friend was up to something, but the apparent suicide had taken her aback.

Sark only looked on with a cold, impassive face.

"Better, perhaps, than what I had planned for her," he said as he turned to face Mercury, "But now I have no need for you."

Meanwhile, below the surface, Ami let herself sink into the cold liquid. With a flick of the wrist she once more drew her transformation pen out and held it in both hands above her head as she continued her descent.

_Water is my friend,_ she thought, _I am home here, no matter where I am. In this water is power, and I can open myself to that power. I am a User and have power here. I am Sailor Mercury and have power in water. I AM THE POWER!_

"Mercury Crystal Power…MAKE UP!"

Lightning arced in the water around her as her darkened pen suddenly glowed to life. The blue glow passed beyond the confines of the pen and spread across her body. The flood of energy didn't stop there however.

Ami's eyes shot open, beams of blue energy spilling out as her body became supercharged in the digital water. She could feel her body strain against the clash of electronic energy magic, and it was beginning to burn her out. She needed to find a way to let the powers flow together. She needed to think fast.

Fortunately, Ami was very good at thinking fast.

She remembered power flowing from her hands to heal one program, bringing him back form oblivion. She drew on her experience drawing magic to form attack spells. She pushed beyond what she knew and forged into what she hoped.

"Mercury Digital Fusion…MAKE UP!"

Above the water the procession took note of the sudden increase in activity from the water. At first it was a blue glow that illuminated the area, followed by lightning spitting out and scorching walls and ground where it struck. Then the water began to churn and swirl as a form began to rise up.

A geyser burst up and the shockwave of its eruption shook the guards. Only Mercury and Sark remained unmoved.

Mercury felt hope swell in her heart.

Sark could only snarl.

The Geyser settled, and on the surface of the water stood a shapely female form. It strode slowly towards the shore, her footsteps sending light ripples along the suddenly calm surface of the digital bay.

Her boots came up to her knees and glowed white with blue trim. Her gloves matched and held a heart symbol with a cross at its bottom on the back of her hands. Her body was covered by a translucent blue short skirt attached to a white body suit. Her chest was encased by blue crystalline armor etched with the same heart like symbol surrounded by a digital circle of pulsing circuitry. On her brow was an oval of blue that glowed with the same light that filled her eyes.

Eyes that now locked onto Sark.

"The digital realm is a place of knowledge that must be used with wisdom. Those that use it as a tool of corruption and conquest will be punished. I am Super User Sailor Mercury, and this is your end."

///END OF SEGMENT///


	5. DOWNLOAD

Dues Ex Machina.

Literally meaning 'God from the Machine'

For philosophers it meant the time before a great change. For the elite of the underground computer culture it was the ideal of an ultimate hacker. Some have even turned it into a sign of fear that we are becoming too mechanized as a society.

For Ami Mizuno the literal translation was the only one that applied to her at the moment.

Power surged, almost uncontrollably, through her body as she fought to maintain her new transformation. On the surface she was calm, but in her mind she was mentally ticking off the moments she could hold it together before giving in to the unbelievable rush of her new form.

The digital realm around her was alive in her eyes, and all she had to do was reach out with her power and change it as she willed. She could think a thought, and life in the form of new codes would spring fourth. Or on a whim she could destroy the entire internet.

She felt the burning in her skull and wondered if this was how Sailor Moon, her Princess, felt when she tapped into the awesome cosmic powers of the Silver Crystal.

And if she didn't want to wind up dead she would have to exercise the same restraint as her friend and leader.

Too bad she was really pissed of at that Sark character.

Mercury 2.0

A TRON/Sailor Moon story

By Seth

Part 5: DOWNLOAD

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. All hail the Mighty Sea Bass.

Streams of energized water shot from Sailor Mercury's fingertips, lancing into the guards around the program Mercury as the startled blue woman realized that once more the tide had turned to favor her and her friend. Quickly she drew her Rod weapons and spun to face off against the other troops around her while she had the initiative.

A short distance away, Sark snarled as he used his disk to block another jet of liquid energy from this strange User he had been sent to capture. His skills were being pushed to the limit as he watched one after another of his troops fall to the combined might of other worldly power and video warrior.

He needed to rethink his strategy if there was going to be any hope of salvaging this situation.

"Fall back," he called out to his remaining guards. "Transfer back to the home server!"

The programs moved to obey, but Sark was blocked from his retreat as Sailor Mercury shot out of the harbor on a column of water and landed in front of him, her hands dripping with sparking liquid as she spun on the attack. He jumped back a short distance and threw his disk. As it sailed towards Sailor Mercury he charged in after it, and when the blue haired girl dodged to avoid being beheaded he struck out with a savage punch.

Sailor Mercury stumbled back at the impact, but her mystic armor absorbed the damage. She recovered quickly and threw her arm out, sending a wave of power after Sark. But the red warrior dove out of the way in time to catch his disk and avoid the attack.

Rolling after his catch, Sark righted himself and sent his disk out once more. This time Mercury moved in front of her smaller counterpart and used her Rods to deflect the attack, knocking the disk away as Sailor Mercury jumped over her and returned fire with another torrent.

The older red program took a grazing hit, but remained strong as he turned, letting his disk once more fly into his hand. He glanced briefly back and saw that his troops had fallen back to the sector's transport platform and nodded to the senior most program, who started the activation for transport out.

Turning away from the two blue warriors, he put his all into running the last of the distance, and he felt the back of his neck bristle as he dove onto the platform as its white light washed over him.

Sailor Mercury watched with a frown as her last attack passed through the space were Sark had been less then a heartbeat ago. She suddenly shook and fought dizziness as the power she was using began to unravel, and she allowed her transformation to reverse itself. Crystal blue and white armor faded away and Ami Mizuno stood once more.

Then she fell to her knees gasping for air.

"What a rush," she managed to get out between breaths.

Mercury ran up to her and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Ami answered as she got back on her feet. "It was just too much power all at once. I should have been more careful."

"But you were so strong. You could have easily wiped out Sark and his forces."

"I know," Ami said as she looked her friend in the eye, "but I wasn't meant to have that much power. No one is. I don't know how Usagi handles it."

Mercury looked at her quizzically, but before she could inquire further Ami turned to look at the transport platform.

"We should get out of here before Sark comes back."

Mercury nodded, "I don't think he needs to. He already knows where we are going, the ENCOM mobile medical server. It was your point of entry, and it's your way out. We simply have to get there before him."

With that the two of them strode onto the disk like platform and Mercury took the controls, setting their destination. In a flash of white light, Ami once more found herself in the canyons of ENCOM's main memory. Several red troopers stood around them, disks at the ready, but with a gesture from their massive leader the warriors stood down.

"It figures that you would be involved with this fiasco, Mercury."

"And hello to you as well Kernel."

Something resembling a grin appeared on the mask like face of the security program as he allowed Mercury and Ami to descend from the platform. Once they were off the disk, Kernel extended his hand as if expecting something.

Mercury took this in and asked sharply, "What?"

"The algorithm please," the bulky warrior answered. "I can't have secure information like that in the hands of an independent. You simply do not have the permissions to carry it."

"We are in a hurry, Kernel," Mercury said as she glared at him, "and a program calling himself Sark is only a few nanosecond behind us. Now let me do my job and get Ami One and the data to the Core…please."

"Sark?" Kernel let out a loud laugh and moved his arm back to reach for his disk, "I think you've gone buggy, Mercury. And I, for one, am glad to be the one to put you and your little beta test down."

Ami spoke up, "It's true. Sark is leading the force that intruded on this system. They are operating on FCon orders. And they ARE on their way here. Please, let us put this data back where it belongs, and let me go home."

Kernel looked at the smaller blue female with disgust and reared back his hand to throw at her, but one of his own troopers suddenly moved between them, his disk out and held in a block.

"Wait sir," the young program called out, "we should listen to what she has to say. We can trust her."

"Stand down or be deleted, trooper."

"No sir."

Ami put her hand on the red trooper's shoulder and moved around him, looking up into his eyes.

"I remember you," she said softly, "I helped you before. Please don't do this. It would be a shame for you to have wasted my work."

The warrior lowered his disk, and his eyes, as he knelt before her, "I'm sorry. I thought I could repay you for binging me back."

Ami smiled, "I didn't do it for compensation. I did it because it was the right thing to do."

Kernel growled, "What are you glitches talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious," Mercury said with a smirk. "Ami One is a User."

"Impossible."

A grizzled warrior with a shield came forward, "No sir. I saw it with my own eyes. He took a direct hit and was de-rezzing when she grabbed hold of him. There was a flash of light, and he was back, strong as ever. It was the most amazing thing I've ever scanned."

Kernel looked around at his men in disbelief. He only half believed in the power of a User, and he would rather trust in himself then some other worldly power. But now he was face to face with this slip of a User, and his troops looked like they were ready to give their runtimes up for her.

Even Mercury, a hardened mercenary, had a soft smile on her face as this Ami talked with the security troops and told them to prepare for the coming battle. Over the last few cycles Ami had grown on her with her wide eyed wonder, her caring nature, and her tales of far off mystic worlds.

But now their time was limited, and she turned to the Kernel.

"I know that you and I have never really seen eye to eye, but you have to see that if she remains here it could harm us all. FCon is after her because her powers in this world are unlike anything we've seen before. And if Sark gets his hands on her no system will be safe. Please let me finish my mission and let her go home, back to her own kind."

Kernel looked like he was about to start arguing again, but the faint glow from the transport disk began to increase as an incoming signal was received.

"Form up! Form up!" Kernel moved back among his soldiers and looked down at Ami, "I don't know what you are, and frankly I don't care, but the data you carry must not fall back into the hands of the enemy. I'd send some of my men with you, but I need them all here. Now get moving."

"Thank you," Ami said gratefully and bowed to the towering warrior.

She turned to leave, but his gruff voice continued, "If you do try and steal that data, I will hunt you down no matter where you go."

Ami sighed, but nodded as she came up to Mercury, and the two lithe blue women broke into a jog deeper into the memory core. Behind them, the transport platform finished its cycle, and ten purple warriors appeared. The Kernel signaled his warriors to attack, but before disks could be thrown a barrage of Prankster Bits lanced out from the invaders.

Ten vortices of crackling energy tore into the ranks of guards as the enemy moved off the receiver, weapons aimed for a second volley. Ten more purple warriors appeared brandishing Mesh rifles and joined the fray.

The Kernel and his troops counter attacked in the split second lull. Red disks flashed out, and several intruders fell, but the second volley of Prankster Bits forced the guards to seek cover as a third wave of intruders arrived.

Kernel looked out from his cover, throwing his disk with accuracy honed in long service, and surveyed the situation. His troops were already outnumbered, but holding their own for the moment. His assessment changed when a fourth group teleported in, this time with a large construct in their midst.

"A Logic Bomb," he whispered to himself. He bellowed to his troops, "Don't let them set that thing up, it could destroy half the system!"

The red warriors rallied to their leader's cry and pressed hard against the larger invading force. While they were outnumbered, the heavy weapons of their enemy took large amounts of energy, and the front lines of purple warriors were soon unable to continue their sustained assault. Troops broke rank and sought cover of their own as guard disks flashed again.

There was little the defenders could do against the defended bomb, however. The troops that had arrived with it stood their ground, blocking shot after shot as one of their number worked on activating the device.

Seeing that his time was limited, Kernel stood and threw his disk as hard as he could, slicing clean through one attacker and charging in after it. By his side, the trooper that had stood between him and Ami charged as well, determination flashing in his eyes.

Kernel shouted, "For the free systems!"

The trooper added his own cry of, "For the Users!"

And so the battle grew.

Deeper in the canyons of the memory area Ami heard the sounds of the digital war being waged behind her and found herself torn. Part of her wanted to turn back, to help those that fought for her return to the real world. A smaller part of her urged her to forge ahead and escape this nightmare. She slowed and was about to turn when Mercury grabbed her shoulder.

"Do not cheapen what they do," the taller blue warrior said. "Trust the Kernel. He has skill enough to do what needs to be done. Besides, we've come all this way. Now we can complete this task."

"That is doubtful."

Mercury and Ami looked ahead as Sark turned a corner and stood before them. Reacting quickly, Mercury pushed Ami away and jumped aside as the red warrior threw his disk at them, letting it sail between them and spending its deadly attack on one of the canyon walls.

Mercury rolled to her feet and glared, "How did you get ahead of us?"

"The systems may be newer," their enemy chuckled, "but they are still organized the same. While my troops distract your pitiful defenders and prepare to destroy this place, I entered it through an old data stream once used by the MCP. But now, if you would kindly hand over the User, and the data, we can be done with this."

Ami stood and asked, "What do you want me for?"

"Simple," answered Sark, "my User has given me information that you are a known entity in that world. Or rather what you change into is. Once you are returned to the real world, and in his hands, he will be able to discover who you are, who your allies are, and how your powers work. Once he has torn that code from you, he will be a god out there as well as in here. A Wraith God."

Mercury stiffened at this. Sark spoke of a malevolent User, with the power of Ami's transformed state, and the ability to come and go into the digital realm as he saw fit. In her eyes she saw the beginning of a new dark age inside the machine.

Ami could only frown. Pulling out her transformation pen, the blue haired, displaced schoolgirl let her features settle into determination as she began drawing on the same strings of power that Sark sought so fiercely.

In a hard voice she challenged Sark, "The power is not granted to seekers or takers. It is part of a legacy that spanned more worlds then you can understand. The power is the birthright of a blessed few, and I will not let you cheapen it. Nor will I allow you to harm this beautiful world any further."

"Mercury Crystal Power…Make Up!"

The magic welled up inside Ami, but before the transformation could complete itself, Sark launched his attack. His disk flashed out again, and through the haze of blue surrounding her, Ami saw that the red streak was headed right for her neck.

"Pretty words," Sark bellowed, "but meaningless!"

Mercury slid like her namesake in line with the coming attack, twin rods twirling to deflect the deadly projectile. With a distorted clang Sark's disk was reflected back, and the blue warrior charged, the tips of her weapons sparking with energy. Fast as light the nimble gamebot attacked, her rods spinning like electronic fighting sticks, but the attack was brutally brought to an end as Sark deflected the first strike with his own weapon and backhanded the female, his massive strength sending her flying into a canyon wall.

But Mercury smiled as she attempted to regain her footing.

Ami had finished her transformation.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

Sailor Mercury spun in place, her hands shooting out to form a jet of digital water that slammed into the red warrior. Ami wanted to smile at the direct hit, but Sark braced himself, pushing his disk forward and planting his feet. Red energy pulsed along the circuitry in his arms and he dug his heels in against the torrent.

When the spell had spent its energy Sark was still standing. He quickly countered, his disk lashing out again, but Sailor Mercury was just as fast, her disk off her back and in both hands to intercept the strike. As the Red disk flew back towards Sark, Sailor Mercury threw her own attack, but the red warrior caught his disk and spun in place, letting his weapon flash out again.

The disks collided in mid air, a loud clash resonating through the canyon as both warriors retrieved their weapons. Turning, Ami saw that Mercury was once more up and changing her Rods into their shotgun like Diffusion form and getting ready to blast Sark from the side, but their enemy was experienced in combat and had anticipated the attack.

Sark blocked Sailor Mercury's next disk attack and knocked the blue weapon away, making it take longer to return to the young User, and threw his weapon at Mercury who was kneeling to make her shot.

Mercury managed to get her weapon in front of her before the disk hit and the construct to the brunt of the attack, but she was once more knocked back. Her weapon sparked and shattered from the disk's discharge, and the blue warrior was left defenseless.

Sark smirked as he caught his weapon and turned to face Sailor Mercury, "It always amazes me. Programs like her, slaves really, fight so hard for nothing. And Users like you are too weak to truly change the system. Once your routines are mine I can reformat this system to perfection. All the chaos gone, leaving only perfect order. My order. Then even your world will not be beyond my grasp. It is within my destiny to do what not even the MCP could."

Ami spoke softly to distract him while her brilliant mind worked overtime, "There is something stronger then order in the universe, and not even you can stand up to it. I was ignorant of this world, like so many others in my world, but I've seen its wonder and the heart of its people. They are on the verge of the future, and it is programs like Mercury that will lead the way. She's already discovered that even programs can feel the emotions of Users, and someday we will be able to stand side by side. Not as Users and programs, but as sisters and brothers. All you can do is slow the inevitable."

In anger at her words, Sark bellowed, "Silence, slave!"

He put all his anger, at the Users that had created him and brought him back to once more be a pawn, at the MCP for letting him die and using his body as a puppet, at a warrior called Tron for killing him, and at the young girl in a magic fuku style armor before him that spoke of destiny, and burned it into the core of his disk as he threw, aiming for the blue haired girl's neck.

It was what Ami had been waiting for.

Her own disk flashed out on an intercept course, but she continued to twist her body after the throw, calling back to her earliest days as a defender of love and justice. She had sometimes combined her powers with Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars in those hectic days, using Moon's attack as a guide and adding her own power to give it speed while Mars' magic increased its power.

"Shabon Spray!"

The mist and bubbles from the very first spell she had learned jetted out and surrounded her outbound disk, coating it in shining blue energy as it continued on course towards Sark's disk.

Again, there was a electronic clang as the disks collided, but this time the magic wrapped around Ami's digital weapon seemed to flow as the red disk skipped off of it, ricocheting off into the sky as the blue disk continued on, straight and true.

Sark crossed his arms, attempting to block the attack, but the magically enhanced weapon slammed into him like a freight train, sending him flying back. As he skidded to a rest he could feel that he was only anchored to this world by the slimmest of threads. The anger welled up in him again as he slowly, painfully, pushed himself upright.

Ami caught her returning disk, returning it to its mount on her back, and turned to run over and check on her comrade. Mercury was still resting against the wall, smiling at the safety of her User friend, but still saddened that her weapon, a longtime companion, had been destroyed.

Ami asked her, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Sailor Mercury," the digital warrior answered. "Now that that's over we can…"

Suddenly her eyes widened as a red form rose up from behind Ami and struck a hard blow against the smaller girl. Sark continued his assault, forgoing weapons in favor of using his fists to hammer the off guard User. Ami was slammed into the wall hard as Mercury was backhanded out of the way. Then Sark drove fist after fist into Sailor Mercury's back, aiming low and for the spine.

Ami tried to spin out of the way, but caught a fist in the stomach and across the face as she turned and slumped to the ground. Mercury tried to tackle the large, angry red warrior off her friend, but received an elbow to the jaw for her effort that fell her to her knees beside Sailor Mercury.

"Never again," Sark whispered. "Never again will I be humiliated by weaklings like you. This system and everything in it belong to me. And as such, I've decided that you no longer have a place in it." He took out his disk and brought it up, getting ready not to throw, but to simply drive into Sailor Mercury's neck.

Ami could barely move, or focus as the beating she had just taken left her dazed, but she could feel the sickening lethal intent washing off of Sark and boring into her. She reached out to one side, hoping to find something, anything to stop he demise.

Her hand came into contact with another, and she sensed that it was Mercury reaching out to her.

Ami gathered her magic, opened her heart, and pushed.

_Just like Copy and Paste,_ she thought to herself as the blurred image of Sark started his final blow.

Instantly, Mercury felt a burning flow run through her body. Raw power sizzled through every line of her code, and she could see patterns forming in her minds eye. The power sought release, it wanted to be used. She flung her arm up, palm open only inches away from Sark's chest as he was plunging his disk down at Ami.

The words that came from her would forever be etched into her digital soul.

"Mercury Aqua Mirage!"

The machine gun like blast of dozens of glowing blue spheres shot out from her palm and instantly hit Sark, sending him flying back as more continued to impact into him. Explosions rippled across the sky, tracing his path as the magic continued to pour from Sailor Mercury, into Mercury and out into the black electronic sky.

A strangled scream and a massive explosion signaled the end of the attack, and of a mighty warrior that had terrorized the system twice over.

Mercury lowered her arm, turning her hand to stare in wonder at her still smoking palm as Sailor Mercury let her magic flow back inside, returning Ami to the forefront and sighing in relief.

"That was amazing," Mercury whispered. She turned to look into Ami's eyes, and saw the depth and emotion there.

Ami slowly stood, holding her stomach lightly and told the still stunned warrior what she had learned in her years of service to her princess.

"It's just another day in the life of a magical girl."

Slowly the two of them moved off once more, making their way to the deepest areas of the system. They soon came to the transfer point Ami had used to come to the memory banks and stepped into its light.

When they had finished the transfer Ami once more found herself in the area she had arrived to the computer world in. She led Mercury down the short hall into the main building, where Byte was still floating, waiting for her return.

"I see that you were successful," the construct said in its monotone voice. "All has been prepared." He floated off to a control panel that glowed as he touched it. To one side of the large receiving area a small panel in the wall opened.

Byte floated over to it and spoke, "Please input the algorithm, and we can get underway."

Ami took out the small node of data from her belt and walked over, placing it in the slot exposed in the wall. Once the glowing data was in place, the panel slid shut again, and a loud humming began. Light coalesced over the center of the room, and a beam of light slowly crept up form the large transport platform, up through the aperture in the ceiling, and reaching into the sky.

Ami watched the beam climb to the heavens, or the real world in this case. She then turned to Mercury and saw that the program was giving her a sad smile.

"This is the second time I've had to say goodbye to a User," the warrior said, "and the second time that I've had to say goodbye to a friend."

Ami nodded, her own said smile forming, "I have so few friends of my own. I know how painful it is to see one of them leave. But I know something now. Whenever I hold my computer I'll know that it's not just a tool, but a connection to one of my very dear friends."

Ami then grabbed the taller blue woman in a sisterly hug that startled Mercury. But the program found it comforting and returned the gesture. After a moment, Ami let go and spoke softly.

"Neither of us are the same now." At Mercury's confused look Ami explained, "I've found out that your world exists, and have to come to grips with the knowledge that what I do out there affects you in here. And you have been touched by magic. Once that happens, your life will never be the same."

Ami stepped away and started towards the path home. Before she entered the light, she turned back for a moment and asked, "Is there anything you want me to pass on to the other Users?"

Mercury thought for a moment, and finally said, "Tell Jet One…tell him I…miss him."

Ami nodded, and gave a wide smile, and then stepped into the light.

///Meanwhile in the Real World///

"All right people," Jet said as his fingers flew across the keyboard, "here we go."

Behind him, both Usagi and Makoto crossed their fingers as massive amounts of information began scrolling across the computer screen. Behind them the medical laser once more hummed to life and tracked to the middle of the open area in the center of the closed exhibit. The two disguised defenders of love and justice held their breath as the process began.

Ma3a's digital voice was once more heard over the speakers, "Laser activity in ten seconds. Please stand away from the laser."

Jet's trained eyes continued to scan the monitor as the countdown continued. He had failed to keep the girl in this world; he would not fail to bring her back safely. He nodded as the last element fell into place and turned to see how the return process worked on this side.

As the countdown ended, the prismatic laser shot out again, and a gird of light formed in mid air. As it was finished rapid pulses streaked out, quickly reforming into solid matter. In seconds, the process was complete, and a startled looking Ami Mizuno slumped to the floor.

Usagi and Makoto were almost instantly at her side, latching on to the girl with massive hugs. For a moment it looked like all three girls would break into tears of joy, and Jet wouldn't have blamed them one bit.

Back inside the system, Mercury walked away from the chamber she had just watched her friend leave in. Now she had to go back and see how Kernel had fared against the other intruders. Since the system was still here, and knowing the massive warrior's skill, she figured that victory was what she would find.

As she walked, Ami's words came back to her.

_You have been touched by magic. Once that happens, your life will never be the same._

Ami could not have been more correct. Mercury looked down at her wrist once more to make sure that what she had found there was still there. A simple silver band on her armored gauntlet with a glowing blue crystal that had Sailor Mercury's symbol etched in its heart.

It was time for Mercury to help defend the system, for love and justice.

Elsewhere in the real world, Ed Dillinger sat back in his chair, scowling at the monitor before him. It had taken a great deal of time to covertly put programs back into the system he had helped build, and it had all fallen apart when yet again, another User had foiled his plans.

First Kevin Flynn had stopped the MCP from taking control of the world. The Jet Bradley had stopped his Datawraith project. Now an unknown User had defeated him and stolen back the vital code needed for him to complete his goals.

But in the end, it hadn't been a total waste. He now knew that other things existed in this world. Beings of power that could manipulate the elements themselves. And power was what he needed.

Yes, FCon would have to look into these so called Sailor Senshi.

///END OF LINE///


End file.
